Netmagic to invest Rs 2K-crore to set up two data centers by 2018

NEW DELHI: Data centre company Netmagic plans to invest about Rs 2,000 crore to set up two new facilities, one each in Mumbai and Bengaluru, by April 2018, apart from increasing its headcount to meet growing business.

The Mumbai-based company operates nine nine data centres in the country across Mumbai, Chennai, Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru.

"When we launched our last projects in Bengaluru and Mumbai, we thought it would take 5-6 years to fill their capacity but within six months of the launch of Mumbai data centre, we have started to build two new facilities. We are seeing demand beyond our expectation," Netmagic Executive Director and President Sunil Gupta told PTI.

He said there is huge demand from the e-commerce sector and the launch of 4G services will fuel demand for videos and high-definition content.

"We have decided to invest about Rs 2,000 crore to set up two new data centres to meet the demand. One will be in Bengaluru with 3,000 racks capacity and other will be in Mumbai with 4,000 racks capacity," Gupta said.

He added that Netmagic plans to increase its headcount from about 1,100 at present to 1,400 by March 2017.

Netmagic had in October 2015 launched its data centre in Mumbai, which it says is the largest such facility in the country.

"About 60 per cent of the data centre capacity has been contracted to clients and we expect to contract rest of the 40 per cent in other six months," Gupta said.

The company has dedicated more than 80 per cent of its capacity to the e-commerce sector.

"We are also aware of what global majors are talking about with the Indian economy growing. There are Japanese companies who have keen interest in India, especially in infrastructure space.

"We see huge demand coming from them in near future. Therefore, we need to be ready with capacity," Gupta said.

He said the company had earlier expected to close 2015-16 with revenue of Rs 445 crore, but exceeded the target by 20 per cent at about Rs 534 cr.